?Chapter 1466:
Back on Maia’s end, she held her emotions in check and waited in silence for an answer. She had braced herself for Kiley’s usual taunts, threats, or some outrageous demand. Instead, what came through the line was a trembling, tear-choked voice flooding with panic.
“Chris? I really don’t know. Maia, I’m at South Lake Park, behind Cooper Group’s private hospital. My father’s covert operatives have surrounded me, and they’re trying to kill me. Pleasee save me. I’m begging you. I have something you want. If youe, I will—”
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The call cut off without warning.
Shock flickered across Maia’s face. Why would Kiley end the call before finishing her sentence?
Frowning, Maia stared at the darkened screen and fell into thought. There was no doubt the voice had belonged to Kiley, and the fear and desperation she heard did not sound fabricated. Still, she could not reconcile that broken, desperate plea with the arrogant and domineering Cooper daughter she had always known.
It was the same disconnect she had felt earlier at the hospital — the same inability to align the Chris she knew with the so-called influential figure who could make powerful men drop to one knee, just as the nurse had described.
Nothing about the night made sense anymore. Contradictions piled up one after another.
So what was truly happening? Was Kiley deliberately setting a snare to draw her in, or had some unforeseen turn of events thrown everything off course?
Maia broke the silence and called her chief hacker. “Stay on the surveince feed and notify me the moment there is any update on Chris.”
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When the call ended, her hands tightened around the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white.
Unbidden, Zoey’s words from the day of her release surfaced in her thoughts. “Maia, if you ever face a problem you cannot handle by yourself, do not force it. Remember this — I am always here for you. Whenever you need me, I will be there.”
Yet the truth was that since leaving prison, Maia had faced every hardship and every misunderstanding entirely on her own. Over time, she had learned to rely only on herself, and grown ustomed to carrying that weight alone.
This time, however, everything felt fundamentally different. Control had slipped away entirely. Chris was gone, Kiley was begging for help, and Mr. M’s men had vanished after escorting both her and Chris to the hospital.
Something clicked.
A thought surfaced in Maia’s mind — sharp and daring. What if Mr. M had also been at the hospital earlier? If the reason those men in tailored suits had knelt was that Mr. M had been present in Chris’s room, possibly standing right beside him, then every strange detail would finally fall into ce. That would mean Chris had been taken by Mr. M himself.
Even so, the theory still felt iplete.
For some time now, the signs had been pushing Maia toward a single conclusion: Mr. M was most likely her mentor, Zoey. That belief had once felt solid, but doubt now crept in where certainty used to be. By all ounts, Zoey should still have been behind bars — her freedom made no sense. And if Mr. M was not her, then why had this mysterious figure helped Maia time and again without ever asking for anything in return? Why would Mr. M take Chris now?
Each possibility only deepened the confusion rather than clearing it.
A heavy sense of uncertainty closed in around her, as though she had been drawn onto a vast chessboard and could no longer see the next move.
Steeling herself, Maia inhaled deeply and reached for her phone to call Zoey.
The moment the call connected, Zoey’s anxious voice rushed through the line. “Maia, are you alright? I just saw the fire department’s report — the list of missing people. Are you safe? Are you with Chris?”
The instant Chris’s name surfaced, Maia’s heart clenched violently, as though an unseen hand had seized it without warning.
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